The spokesman of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, gave a speech via audio message on 11 May 2014, entitled “Udhran emir al-Qaeda” (Apologies, emir of al-Qaeda). Al-Qaeda’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, disowned ISIS, al-Qaeda’s prior Iraqi branch, in February, and then gave an extended statement a few days ago that placed blame for the schism squarely on ISIS. Al-Adnani’s speech was a response to al-Zawahiri, and it was among ISIS’s most stern attacks on al-Qaeda so far. Al-Adnani denounced al-Zawahiri for allegedly deviating from the outlook of Usama bin Ladin. Al-Adnani called on al-Zawahiri to reverse his ruling that accepted Jabhat al-Nusra’s split from ISIS. Al-Nusra has rebelliously broken its pledge of allegiance to ISIS, al-Adnani says, and al-Zawahiri’s duty was to side with ISIS against this renegade—not to join in a campaign of sedition and conspiracy against ISIS. Most intriguingly, al-Adnani denied that ISIS had ever been, in a formal sense, subordinate to al-Qaeda. Rather, says al-Adnani, ISIS had placed itself in a position of voluntarily labelling themselves as al-Qaeda and accepting the advice of the “elders of jihad” in order to unite the ranks of the jihadists. But, says al-Adnani, this was not a command relationship for ISIS’s internal affairs: witness, al-Adnani says, ISIS’s refusal to listen to al-Qaeda’s order to cease attacking Shi’i civilians. Though, says al-Adnani, ISIS did obey al-Qaeda in external matters, specifically not targeting Iran, where al-Qaeda has an important facilitation network that serves as its supply line from Afghanistan-Pakistan to the Arab world. Al-Adnani’s speech was translated today by Musa Cerantonio, an Australian convert to Islam who is one of ISIS’s most important international propagandist-recruiters. Al-Adnani’s speech is reprinted below.

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All praise is to Allah, the Mighty, the Strong, and may blessings and peace be upon the one sent with the sword as a mercy to the worlds

As to what follows:

Allah the Blessed and Exalted said, “And stop them; indeed, they are to be questioned.” [As-Saffat: 24]

And He the Blessed and exalted said, “Their testimony will be recorded, and they will be questioned.” [Az-Zukhruf:19]

And Ubada bin al-Samit narrated, “We swore allegiance to the Messenger of Allah to hear and obey in times of difficulty and in ease, in enthusiasm and reluctance, to endure upon whatever impacted us, and not to dispute about the rule with the people of command, to say what was right wherever we were, and to fear not in the way of Allah from the blame of the blamers.” [Sahih al-Bukhari 7199]

O mujahideen, O people, lend your ears, for verily my speech for thee is more that I have to say

Lend your ears, I shall convey to you some of the words of our shaykhs (elders), our leaders, our emirs, the leaders of al-Qaeda, the base of the jihad

The Shaykh al-Mujaddid (renewer of the Religion) Usama bin Ladin, may Allah have Mercy upon him, in the 22nd speech, which was a message to the people of Iraq specifically and to the Muslims generally; said,

If the people were to commit to all of the rulings of Islam except for example committing to the command forbidding riba (usury), and they allowed riba-based banks, then the constitution of such a state is to be considered as a constitution of disbelief, for this action implies that they believe the shari’a to be incomplete in perfection and that they lack belief in the perfection of the One that revealed it, Glorious and Exalted is He. It is not a secret that this is kufr akbar (major disbelief), which causes one to be expelled from the Religion. In addition to this, (it is also major disbelief) the elections which are held with the command of America, under the shade of its war-planes and tank shells. Accordingly, everyone that is involved in these elections—of which its case has been described prior—knowingly and accepting, has disbelieved in Allah the Exalted, and there is no Might nor Power except by Allah.

We should beware of deceivers who speak in the name of parties and Islamic groups, and they urge people to take part in this obstreperous apostasy. If they were sincere then their concern throughout night and day would be to devote themselves to the Religion of Allah the Exalted and to disassociate themselves from the apostate regimes and they would incite the people to jihad against the Americans and their allies.

If they are unable to do so then their hearts should deny and they should avoid taking part in the programs of the apostates or sitting in the assemblies of apostasy. All that we have mentioned about Iraq fully applies as well to the situation in Palestine. The country is under occupation, and the constitution of the state is a man-made and jahili (ignorant) that Islam is free of, and the candidate Mahmoud Abbas is a Baha’i disbelieving agent.

The shaykh Abu Yahya al-Libi [real name: Mohamed Qaid], may Allah have Mercy upon him, said in speaking about the scholars of evil, “So what is the benefit that has tied your tongues from pronouncing the word of truth, while you pretend to be considerate to it, the tyrant of Bilad al-Haramayn (Saudi Arabia) is rapidly pulling the people towards disbelief and blatant apostasy.”

And he said in the Khutbah of Eid ul-Adha, “It is a must to seclude ourselves from the disbelievers, it is a must to boycott them, it is a must to disassociate ourselves from them, it is a must that they know that we are upon one route and that they are upon another route, we are in one hole and they are in another hole, we are upon one path and they are upon another path, as for mixing and playing with the commands and words of the shari’a, then this will lead to a great error and to open corruption.”

And he said, “Either it shall be that the people of belief overcome the people of disbelief and they conquer them and enter them into the Religion of Allah, or that they pay the jizya by their hands and they are humiliated in doing so; or it shall be that the people of disbelief overcome the people of belief or that they migrate and the people of belief leave the lands of disbelief, and that is hijra (migration for Allah’s sake).”

May Allah have Mercy upon you, O shaykh, that is hijra, and this is the correct Religion

Sulayman Abu Ghayth said in his khutbah entitled ‘The apostates in Kuwait,’ “I say to you—O apostate, if you are against the Islamization of the state, and against the Islamization of the system of governance of this country, then I am against the entire system of governance in this country, and the constitution of this country that you cling to is beneath my sandals and my shoes. No, rather by Allah I refuse to step on it and thus become impure, and so cast it into the garbage heap. Know that the constitution of Kuwait is one of disbelief, disbelief, disbelief. And whoever rules by this constitution is a disbeliever. By Allah I shall not cease to uphold this sentence, by Allah I shall never cease; whoever rules by this constitution is a disbeliever.”

[The founder of ISIS,] Shaykh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi [real name: Ahmad al-Khalayleh], may Allah have Mercy upon him, said regarding the methodology of Democracy and its people, “So for these reasons and others, we have declared a fierce war upon this evil methodology, and we have made clear the ruling on the people of this false belief and this way of failure. So all who seek to establish this methodology by aiding and assisting it then he is allied to it and its people, and the ruling regarding him is as the ruling upon those who call to it and clearly accept it, and the candidates for their elections are callers to lordship and to divinity, and those who vote for them have taken them as lords and partners besides Allah, and their judgment in the religion of Allah is that of disbelief and apostasy from Islam. O Allah have I not conveyed? O Allah bear witness.”

This is the Qaeda (Base) of jihad that we knew of, and this is its manhaj (methodology), and whoever substitutes from it then we substitute them.

This is al-Qaeda that we loved, this is al-Qaeda that we allied ourselves with, this is al-Qaeda that we supported.

This is al-Qaeda, this is al-Qaeda that terrorised the nations of disbelief and plagued the sleep of the tyrants.

This is al-Qaeda that ran through our blood and dwelled in the depths of our hearts, we respected it, we supported it, we revered it, we honoured it and held it in high esteem; and we were not to obey any but its leadership.

Its leadership themselves are symbols, we do not allow any suspicion—a mere suspicion—to pass in the minds of any of us or in the depths of any of us, and thus to slander one of its symbols, or to revile or deprecate one of its leaders by speaking against them.

Yes, and why? Because they are the people of precedence, because they are the people of favour, because they are the people of sacrifice, because they are symbols of the umma (Muslim nation or community) and its leaders in this time, the revivers of the Religion.

This is our relationship with al-Qaeda, the base of jihad, and because of this the State sent, via Abu Hamza al-Muhajir [real name: Abdul Munim al-Badawi] a message to the leadership of al-Qaeda, confirming in it the alliance of the State to the symbols of the umma, the best examples of al-Qaeda, and it was to inform them that the united word of the leadership of jihad in the world was to them, despite the settlement of your organisation upon the land of the State, that the word would remain to you in order to protect the unity of the mujahideen and to unify their ranks.

For the reasons of all that we have mentioned, the leaders Islamic State remained addressing Qaedat al-Jihad with the speech of soldiers addressing their leaders, the speech of a student to his teacher, of an apprentice to his elder, of a young boy to an older man.

The State kept abiding by the advice and guidance of the elders of jihad and its symbols. It was for that reason that the State did not strike the Rafida (Shi’is) in Iran since its establishment. It left the Rawafid safe in Iran, restrained the anger of its soldiers, despite its potential at that time to transform Iran into a bloodbath. It repressed its rage all these past years, enduring accusations of being collaborators with Iran, its bitterest enemy, for not having targeted it, leaving the Rafida alone to enjoy security in compliance with the orders of al-Qaeda to protect its interests and supply lines in Iran. Yes, it [the State] held back the outrage of its soldiers and repressed its own rage over the years to preserve the unity of the word of the mujahideen and the unity of their ranks. So, let history record that Iran owes an invaluable debt to al-Qaeda.

Yes, and due to al-Qaeda, as well, the State did not operate in Bilad al-Haramayn, leaving alone Al-Salul (the hypocrites, the House of Saud) to enjoy their security, while singling out the scholars of the umma there and the youth of tawhid (monotheism) who fill their prisons.

Due to al-Qaeda the State did not interfere in Egypt, Libya, or Tunisia, and it remained—repressing its rage and holding back its soldiers over the years—as sadness fills its corners and its surface due to the abundance of vulnerable people calling for its help. The secularists are setting up new tyrants even worse in their disbelief than those who came before them in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, and the State cannot move the people to unite their word around the word of tawhid, in order to not oppose the symbols and the leadership of jihad, who served as the best examples of al-Qaeda and who took over the global jihad and took it upon themselves to operate in those countries.

Apologies emir of al-Qaeda, apologies O Doctor.

We have pledged to Allah that we would say the truth wherever we may be, not fearing, in the way of Allah, the blame of the blamers.

Verily, in your most recent speech you caused a misconception amongst the people, and you deluded them to believe in a thing that you strove hard to prove, yet it was not proven, nor shall it ever be proven. For you unreasonably released parts of confidential messages via the media, causing us to endure a crime; you committed it and magnified it, and you are the one who shall be asked about it and shall bear its burden.

You strove hard to make people fall into misconception and to delude them by having them suspect a matter, by placing us in the position of the treacherous, disloyal evil-doers who split the ranks of the mujahideen. It is not for a small soldier like me to respond to someone of your like, to the emir of al-Qaeda, however to the owner of the Truth belongs the right to respond, verily we—and Allah knows—how much our hearts are pressed with pain, and are hit with bitterness due to having to respond to you.

Apologies emir of al-Qaeda:

That we voluntarily humble ourselves to you and thus commit to the jama’a (group), keen to unite the Muslims, and to re-unify the mujahideen, even at the expense of our rights and our compromises is a thing and that you compel us, as a consequence of that, to pledge allegiance, and to be subordinate to you, and then holding us accountable for the crime of splitting the ranks of the mujahideen and the shedding of their blood which you have caused by your acceptance of the pledge of allegiance of the treacherous evil-doer is another thing.[1]

Apologies emir of al-Qaeda:

The State is not a branch that is subordinate to al-Qaeda, nor was it as such in any day, rather if God decrees to you [i.e. al-Qaeda] to set foot into the land of the Islamic State, except that you pledge your allegiance to it and that be of the soldiers of its emir—the Qurayshi, the grandson of al-Husayn—as you are today soldiers under the authority of [Taliban leader] Mullah [Muhammad] Umar, it is not valid for an Emirate or State to pledge allegiance to an organisation.

Apologies emir of al-Qaeda, apologies O Doctor:

All that you have mentioned in your statement does not contain within it that which you strove hard to prove and you failed to prove, and if it were present, you would have answered the one who you described as the patient muhajir in one word, and you would have avoided acknowledging that which you forbid. It is strange, strange indeed!

Whilst we have evidence indicating otherwise from the mouths of the leaders of the State and al-Qaeda, and you ahead of them, it is then from your own mouth that the world hears that the organisation has been dissolved in Iraq and pledges allegiance to the State and joined it.[2]

All that you have mentioned in your statement is correct, I will even add on it to you; until very recently, we would answer who asked us about the relationship of the State with al-Qaeda that its relationship is one of a soldier to its emir. But this soldiery, O doctor, was to unite the word of the global jihad as one, it was not in power in the State, as if it was not binding upon it, neither was it obliged to it. This is but humility, humbleness and an honour to you from us, and we have from events, facts and evidence that which is multiple and similar to what you have said in your statement affirming the nature of this relationship, and that it is not a power within the State.

An example of this—our non-response to your repeated request to stop targeting the general masses of the Rafida in Iraq due to the judgment that they are Muslims who are excused due to their ignorance. For if we had a pledge of allegiance with you, we would have followed your command even though we might have disagreed on the judgment regarding them and the belief about them. This is what we learned in regards to listening and obeying. If you were the emir of the State you would have obliged it to commit to your request and you would have isolated those who opposed. Nevertheless we have submitted to your request by not targeting them outside the State in Iran and elsewhere.

For if we had a pledge of allegiance with you, we would have followed your command even though we might have disagreed on the judgment

And an example of this—that you did not ask us one day—nor those who came before you—How many are your soldiers? What are your weapons? From where comes your financing? From where are you armed? Do you have that which you eat? Who are your emirs? Who are your ministers? Your governors, your judges, your scholars? What are your problems? What are your sufferings?

Tell me by your Lord: What have you done for the State if you are its emir? With what have you assisted it? What did you account it for? With what did you order it and regarding what did you forbid it from? Who did you cut off and who did you entrust upon it?

None of these things happened ever.

So for you is Allah, O oppressed State!

And another example of this: That you did not address us, nor who preceded you even a day, with the address of an emir to his soldier or in the form of a command ever, you did not address us nor those who preceded you in the form of a command except after the disaster that exploded in al-Sham (Syria) and you distressed the umma with your acceptance of the pledge of allegiance of the insidious traitor [Abu Muhammad al-Jolani].

You have placed yourself and your base today before two unavoidable options. Either that you continue upon your error and be stubborn and insist upon it, and the splitting and killing amongst the mujahideen continues in the world. Or, that you recognise your error and your fault and you correct it and you change course. And here we are extending our hands to you again, to be the worthy successor to the best predecessor; for Shaykh Usama bin Ladin united the mujahideen upon one word, while you disunited them, split them and dispersed them in total dispersion.

We extend our hands to you again and invite you, firstly, to undo your deadly fault and to reject the allegiance of the insidious, treacherous evil-doer. Enrage the disbelievers by doing so, and cause the believers to rejoice, and stop the blood of the mujahideen from flowing, for you are the one who saddened the Muslims and allowed the enemies to rejoice over the state of the mujahideen, for you supported the treachery of the insidious one and supported it, you burned the souls, caused the hearts to bleed, you are the one who kindled and fuelled the fitna (strife), and you are the one who shall extinguish it if you want to, inshallah (God willing).

So reassess yourself and stand with a stance to Allah, fixing with it that which you corrupted.

We invite you secondly to correct your methodology, to declare openly takfir (excommunication) upon the polytheistic, filthy Rafida, and declare openly the apostasy of the Egyptian Army, the Pakistani Army, the Afghan, the Tunisian, the Libyan, the Yemeni, and the others from the armies of the tyrants and their supporters, and replace their labels as ‘Pro-American’ and other labels, calling them by what the Lord of the worlds named them as: tyrants, disbelievers and apostates. Do not manipulate the legitimate commands, like in your saying: ‘corrupt rule,’ ‘void constitution,’ and ‘pro-American army’.

It is enough for you, so as not to lead into great error and wide corruption, as we were advised and warned of by al-Zarqawi and al-Libi, the leaders of al-Qaeda, may Allah have mercy upon them both. That you call all of the Muslims to jihad and fighting all (the armies mentioned prior) with a direct invitation to renounce the words and terms which are alien to the mujahideen, such as “the popular uprising,” “the intifada of the masses,” the “advocacy movement,” “the people,” “the masses,” “strife,” “struggle,” and other words. Replace them with clear and legitimate jihad, a direct invitation to carry arms, and the renunciation of silmiyya (pacifism), especially in Egypt to [allow the] fight [against] the apostate army, the army of [Abdelfattah] al-Sisi, the new Pharaoh. And to disassociate from [the Muslim Brotherhood’s Muhammad] Morsi and his party and to declare openly his apostasy and to stop causing misconception amongst the Muslims. Yes, Morsi, the tyrant apostate who went out personally at the head of his army to Sinai, not to wage war against the Jews, rather to wage war against the monotheist mujahideen there. He crashed his planes and his tanks into their homes and the homes of the Muslims. Yes, that tyrant who, in the severity of his hatred for the mujahideen, appointed a Christian Crusader judge to rule upon the ones who were imprisoned from among them, and undoubtedly the sentence given was a death sentence. The apostate tyrant signed upon it in order to quench his hatred of them. So why have you not turned away from him, nor call for retribution against him? Rather, you portrayed him as one who is oppressed, you sympathised with him and prayed for him! Or is it that you are pleased with his actions and his constitution that he ruled with? Or with the blood that he spilled of the monotheist mujahideen who defended the borders in Sinai. We do not imagine you to be so!

So make clear these matters, verily you have lost capital and you shall not profit!

So go ahead and trust in Allah and make this decision, and waste not the legacy of Usama, for we have not called you except to legitimate matters, rather matters compulsory upon you

Go ahead so that you may be a wise man, make a decision by which Allah will raise you in status in this world in and in the next, with the permission and success of Allah, and with it address the enemies of Islam, and extinguish by it the fitna that you were the cause of. Yes, you are the cause of. Yes, you are the cause of it, for you made of yourself and your Qaeda a laughing stock and a game played in the hand of a young boy, a treacherous evil-doer, disloyal to the pledge of allegiance that you did not see, and you left him to play with you like a child playing with a ball. Your prestige has gone and you have lost your history and your glory, so hasten and beware of a bad ending.

Apologies emir of al-Qaeda:

This is what is said about you, this is what the mujahideen from among the muhajirun (foreign fighters) and the ansar (local jihadists) are saying about you. So hasten, for the opportunity is still there before you; if you seize it, then verily you shall be a wise man, an elder, a leader and a symbol [i.e. role model].

Apologies emir of al-Qaeda:

We have not ceased to have questions which require your answers, and it should not bother you to answer if we have the right of brotherhood as well upon you, and to end the confusion that has occurred among the people as a consequence of your statement, and perhaps your answers will be a reason for stopping the bloodshed among the mujahideen.

So we ask you, by Allah, that you remind us of the minimum resources of the State that were said to you that we did not have; perhaps we may clarify it to you if you were unaware of it, or that we achieve it if we had lost it.

And we ask you, who are the grandchildren of Ibn Muljim whom you have mentioned in a previous speech and you called upon the umma to mobilise against? Who are they that all Muslims are required to stand up against and form a general opinion against? Who are the descendants of the killers of Uthman? We hope that you can clarify this with the clarification of the brave. For your soldiers in Syria, from the Jolani Front and their allies from Jabhat ad-Dirar (the Front of Harm) and the disbelieving Military Council and the rest of the Sahwat (Awakening), understood that the intended were the soldiers of the Islamic State and so all of them complied with your order. They thus made permissible the spilling of the blood of the muhajirun and the ansar through your words, and so if you did not mean the soldiers of the State and its emir then we request from you to clarify it soon in order to save the blood of the mujahideen that is being spilled because of you. Yes, because of you and your “wisdom”.

Who is the grandson of Ibn Muljim that you mentioned, and who are the Haruriyya whom were mentioned by Adam the American? And if it is the State that was meant, then we have another question which awaits a wise reply: If we are to remain in Syria, then we are from the Khawarij, Hashashin (The Assassins), and Haruriyah “whose grandson will be unsuccessful the in the land of Syria”? And if we pull out of Iraq, surrendering and escaping, then we are upon the Sunna of the descendants of al-Husayn’s mujahideen? Of people are some that their love is Religion and their hatred is disbelief and being close to them is salvation and protection. And so verily we request from you the evidence.

For if you say, “You killed so-and-so,” to this we say: “They killed many more from us, yet you would not describe them with the labels you have described us with, nor did you weep for one of us. Moreover, this is not evidence.” And if you say, “You are fighting Muslim groups,” We say, “By Allah, they began with us the fighting, complaining and crying when we responded to their enmity, and we are still the defenders. So why did you not characterise them with what you have characterised us? This, as well, is not evidence.”

As for the independent court that you requested, then we say to you—this matter is not possible. Rather, it is unreasonable; it is an incapacitating request from sorts of fantasy. Why? Because you have divided the Muslims into two groups with no third; a group that is with the State and its supporters, and a group with those who are requesting the independent court. There cannot be found on the face of the Earth an independent, eligible body that both sides will agree to.

Therefore, should I not inform you of that which is better and easier?

A matter that if the Muslims were to do they would achieve with all victory. Is there not among the Muslims a righteous man? Is there not among the Muslims a man who is qualified?

Is there not among the Muslims upon the face of the Earth a rightly-guided man that the Muslims may choose and thus he announces to the public his rejection of the tyrants, and disavowal of disbelief and polytheism and its people, and to declare his hatred towards them and his war against them? So that we may pledge allegiance to him upon that and we appoint him as caliph, and we fight whoever disobeys him with those who obey him, in Iraq, Syria, the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Khorasan and all of the Earth, and we thereby put an end to all this fragmentation and differing, and we bring joy to the believers and enrage the disbelievers, and there shall remain no legitimate Emirate other than it.

This is the solution, and there is no solution besides it, and the first duty of the caliph shall be the formation of the court that you called us to, this is the only solution. This solution is simple, there exists no impediment in the shar’ia to prevent us from reaching it. Indeed it is the duty of our era in which the Muslims are falling behind [in implementing Islamic law]. This is our disease and our cure.

As for your appeal to us to leave Syria, we shall not repeat and say the same again, that this matter is rather out of the question, it is neither legitimately possible, rationally nor realistically. We will never say that Syria has today become in greater need of the State than it was yesterday, the day after the truce with the Nusayris and selling them the areas. Nor shall we ever say that the areas that are controlled by the Islamic State in Syria are larger than the areas controlled by all of the factions, groups and parties, in their religions and their creeds, and that no law in the areas of the State other than Allah’s Law in which His limits are set, and there is no authority other than His Shari’a, the prayer is established, the zakat is paid, good is commanded and evil is forbidden, by honouring the honourable or by dishonouring the dishonoured, in spite of those who are proud, and in its corners safety and security was established, by the Favour of Allah alone.

We shall never say this. Rather we say: if it is for the organisation of al-Qaeda to be pleased that the mujahideen voluntarily withdraw from a land that they rule over it with the Law of Allah and they set His limits, and they hand it over on a golden plate to the Jarba coalition and his ballot boxes of votes, or to the group of Salim Idris, the gangs of Hayyani and Afash, the criminals of Jamal [Marouf] and [Kataib Nooradeen] al-Zengi, the Saluliyyah Front and its Sururis, the Front of treachery and insidiousness and its bandits and its hyenas. If al-Qaeda is pleased with this, then verily our Lord and our Religion refuse it!

And we say: If you call us to follow the example of Al-Hassan, then where is Mu’awiyah, may Allah be pleased with them both? And if we had with us a Yazid, then we would have handed him over, so none shall remain then in the Front of the insidious disloyal traitor amongst the leadership except hyenas? Thus, you should know that 1,000 killers of Husayn is preferable to the Army of the State than leaving an inch of territory in which the Law of Allah rules.

Moreover, Hassan and Husayn, both of them are the masters of the youth of Paradise, may Allah be pleased with them both.

So we have left to you the squares in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, and you have surrendered them due to “deficits” at the ballot boxes.

Attack them, O fatherless one, for the sake of your father [i.e. if you don’t attack then you have no honour, like a bastard], so that you would be excused from blame or hold your ground firm like they did.

And we await your wise reply by which you put an end to the confusion which you caused by your recent speech, by which everyone will know your stance clearly.

Apologies, apologies. Apologies emir of al-Qaeda.

Verily, the soldiers of the Jolani Front and the soldiers of Abu Khalid al-Suri [Muhammad al-Bahaya] have begun to say after your recent statements, “The Shaykh has become senile!” Apologies for this frank report, but it is being said among them.

And O you mujahideen: The bottom line is that the dispute between the Islamic State and the leadership of al-Qaeda is a dispute of methodologies, just as the emir of the organisation said in his recent meeting with As-Sahab Foundation. This is the case and it is not about who pledged allegiance to who or who references who, as the emir of Tandheem Qaedat al-Jihad strove to prove, but did not prove nor shall he ever prove.

And when the Islamic State was a part of the global jihad, and there was dire need for global jihad, religiously, for a head to lead it, and the leadership of al-Qaeda, may Allah have Mercy upon them, were symbols of the jihad in this era and the people of precedence and favour, the State left for them the leadership of the jihad across the world, out of respect, consideration, esteem, admiration, reverence, honour and support. So it never exceeded them nor opposed them in a policy outside of their regions, and it addressed them with the address of the leadership and the emirs.

They also did not oblige it to a command in regards to its internal affairs, rather their saying, may Allah have Mercy upon them, was, “The witness sees that which the absent one sees not.”

Until the doctor al-Zawahiri, and the influential ones with him, today made the State a branch of their Qaeda, and they wanted for it to be upon their methodology which remained buried and subdued outside of al-Qaeda, and it did not appear until after the alliance of al-Zawahiri and clearing the field for the American.

So when the State refused that methodology, which al-Zawahiri requested of us to change, they declared war against it, and they did not find a pretext nor a cover for the war other than claiming that they are fighting Khawarij , by which the scholars of the tyrants and the rulers fight us.

Accordingly, we request from all of the branches of al-Qaeda in all of the regions an official announcement and a clear and explicit stance: What is your opinion regarding the methodology of the Islamic State? And what is your judgment regarding it?

Is it from the Haruriyya Khawarij, or even worse? That it is hypocritical with people, uses taqiyya (dissimulation), fights for wanting power and positions? That its status regarding the leadership of the jihad is like the status of Ibn Muljim? That its methodology is oppressive and it is necessary for the Muslims to fight and to eradicate it from Syria?

An announcement in which your statements will be written, and about which you shall be asked before Allah. And know that in your silence are words.

“And stop them; indeed, they are to be questioned” [As-Saffat: 24].

“Their testimony will be recorded, and they will be questioned” [Az-Zukhruf: 19].

If we were able to remain silent we would have remained silent. If we were able to be gentle we would have been gentle. If we were able to be soft we would have been soft. So let none blame us, for, verily, we are but defenders and companions of Truth. And let none say that we display in the media what must not be shown. We have not shown anything except as a response and a defence, it was inevitable after what others besides us had shown.

[Poetry]

We cover our trip with our wealth and possessions and we rise above their money, and we carry from them the weight of their rights and belongings

We stab the people with daggers as they go further from us and we strike them with swords when they attack us

We hit with dark soft spears from the hand of a fighter and we fight them with bright piercing swords

Like we carry the skulls of the heroes (the size of what a camel carries) falling on land full of rocks

We split open the heads of enemies and we cut their necks and their heads come off

We’ve inherited the honour of our forefathers, the tribe have acknowledged and we fight till our honour becomes apparent

We excel with youths that see fighting as honour and our elders have been previously tried in war

We challenge all people who are equal to us in honour and might, and we fight their sons to protect our sons

Other people have never known of us to weaken or to be humiliated in war

[End poetry]

O Allah, O One Who knows the doer of evil from the doer of good, and the wicked from the righteous, deal with the hypocrites, the traitors and the insidious ones. Expose them in front of all the witnesses and show us in them the wonders of Your Power.

O Allah, protect your servants the mujahideen in every place, O Allah enable them, O Allah assist them with a firm victory, and grant them a manifest victory, O Allah free their prisoners, and heal their wounds and ease their trials, and accept those who died among them.

And all praise belongs to Allah the Lord of the worlds.

Notes

[1] In ISIS’s telling, the leader of Jabhat al-Nusra, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, broke his bay’a to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi when he gave bay’a to Ayman al-Zawahiri, and al-Zawahiri accepting al-Jolani’s bay’a means al-Zawahiri has ratified an act of sedition.

[2] Al-Zawahiri gave interviews in 2007 and 2008 saying that the formation of the Islamic State of Iraq, to which al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) swore allegiance, meant there was no al-Qaeda formation in Iraq.